Mendoza, Argentina

Diary:

We travelled to Argentina's principle winemaking city, Mendoza, from Santiago via a spectacular route that took us right across the Andes within view of South America's highest peak, Aconcagua.

If we were delighted with the cosmopolitan character of Santiago, we were transported to even higher levels of bliss once we arrived in Argentina. Not only was it even more European and chic than Chile, its devalued currency made the cost of living here ludicrously low. In fact, after spending a few days in Argentina, our finance spreadsheet indicated it was the cheapest place we had so far visited in the whole of Central and South America. We indulged in almost every sinful pleasure we could find - nice hotels, gourmet restaurants, cafés with divine deserts and handmade chocolates - and it was costing us less than Guatemala and Nicaragua!

Whilst in Mendoza, when we weren't lounging about at cafés or gorging ourselves on fine food, we visited several of the nearby Argentinian wineries. Some, like the "La Rural" winery, were superb; others, like "Bodega La Colina de Oro", were so bad that no one could drink the wine they presented at the tasting! (Now that's a first!)

After a thoroughly relaxing few days in Mendoza the time had come to move on further south to the picturesque city of Bariloche by the side of lake Nahuel Huapi.

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